The Poison Plot

"malevolent wives, betrayed husbands, and poisonous solutions" Who knew this was going on back in the 18th century? A fascinating, well documented look at life in the 1700s.

In 1738, in the bustling town of Newport, Rhode Island, Mary Arnold allegedly attempted to murder her husband Benedict, a man considerably older than herself. Her reasons, as revealed in the divorce petition her husband filed in December 1738, included financial gain and her adulterous affairs. Benedict Arnold was certainly sick, and when he recovered he divorced his wife although he died soon after the divorce was granted.

Domestic murders are not rare, in fact, outside of armed conflicts, in most places and times a person is more likely to be murdered by someone he or she knows than by a stranger. An intimate partner is always the person the police look to first when a murder has occurred. There is no reason to believe that this was different hundreds of years ago.

Until the nineteenth century, when a test for the presence of arsenic in a body was developed, there was no sure way of proving someone had been poisoned. Many of the symptoms of poisoning are the same as a number of natural maladies, such as vomiting, bloody stools, and the like. There is really no way of telling how many inconvenient relatives were done away with over the centuries, and we equally do not know how many people were suspected of poisonings of which they were entirely innocent.

Due to the paucity of real information about Mary Arnold’s life, a lot of this book is speculation. That does not make it bad, in fact, it is very interesting, but the reader should be aware of this. The author describes the economic, social and cultural milieu in which Mary Arnold lived. The view of New England during the first part of the eighteenth century is fascinating. If you are curious, as I was, about whether the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold was a member of this family, the author says that he was the grandson of Mary’s husband Benedict by his first wife, Mary being his second.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I am not convinced that Mary Arnold actually tried to murder her husband. Certainly, it is possible, and it seems that the author thinks she may have done it, but if I were on a jury I would have reasonable doubt. Not that I think she was an angel, or incapable of trying to poison her husband, but there just is not enough evidence nearly three hundred years later to say for certain one way or the other. The lack of a specific test for arsenic, and the hints that Benedict may have been suffering from a sexually transmitted disease of long-standing, make the decision impossible, at least for me.

The Poison Plot: A Tale of Adultery and Murder in Colonial Newport by Elaine Forman Crane is a mystery novel with a fascinating setting. I love the colonial period and have visited present day Newport. As a result, I loved reading this novel. I think historical fiction has the ability to bring the past alive in ways that history books never could. This novel does not disappoint in that regard. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves historical fiction. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I love the concept of this book and I'm always a fan of the setting of colonial times. The author clearly did extensive research and used real historical documents to create an interesting and mysterious story based on true events.